The Absent Testimony

Come:  Psalm 9:1-2:  "I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will TELL of all Your marvelous works.  I will be glad and rejoice in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High."


Hear:  David was never ashamed to give credit (praise) to God for any number of things.  He makes a bold declaration and is not intimidated by lack of Godly respect and honor from those around him.  He is so happy with God and in God that nothing else matters!


Do:  There's a real and intentional push in the world today for believers to shut their mouths and keep it to themselves.  This is, make no mistake, a tactic of Satan himself.  The Gospel is VERBAL.  Faith comes by HEARING (Rom. 10:17).  It must must must be spoken (2 Cor. 4:13).  Satan realizes that if he can get Christians to cease "putting it out there" then he's won untold billions of people because the Church (that's you) is silent.  David would say, "NO!" (Ps. 34:1)  Jesus said that if He commanded those who praised Him to be silent (at the request of the hard-hearted, unbelieving Pharisees) on that Palm Sunday, that the rocks would cry out (Luke 19:37-40).  We must give God more credit in our daily affairs. When speaking of something that blessed us, we must say things like, "Yes, I'm just so thankful to God for getting me that job.  God's good like that, you know?!"  Will it make some people uncomfortable?  Yep!  Is that ok?  Yes, indeed.  We go way to far out of our way in the country to make sure that no one is ever offended (even if they are unreasonably looking for ways TO be offended).  Jesus said, "blessed is He who is not offended at Me." (Mt. 11:6)  Did Jesus offend?  Yes.  (Mt. 13:57; 15:12) Those who were not offended at Him experienced the fullness of His salvation and a new power residing in their lives to shake off the temporary comforts of this world for a weight of eternal glory!  (John 1:10-12; 2 Cor. 4:17)


Prayer:  Let me never, never, NEVER be ashamed to speak Your praise, O my God.  You have been so incredibly good to us and I must never be poor in my praise, in my worship, in my expressions of gratitude to my great God and Savior!.